How does the date of a coin affect the grade assigned by PCGS and NGC?
Often different dates of coins (within a series) are graded with different expectations. For example, 1933 $10 gold are almost always seen with bag-marks on the reverse — even in the highest grades. The Richmond coin is an example of this, as well. For this reason, the professional graders at NGC and PCGS will use a reference of the “typical” example they see of a specific coin to measure how they grade a specific date. Another example is the 1919-D Walking Liberty half dollar. This date is a notoriously poorly struck issue. For that reason, even a mildly poorly struck coin can be considered well struck and therefore potentially worthy of an MS65 grade. The same weakness of strike on a 1933-S Walker (which usually comes very well struck) would be considered a detriment and therefore graded lower than the same coin dated 1919-D. One other consideration is rarity. Famous rarities, like the 1933 $10 are always in high demand by the grading services for their notoriety, and often they get
